Is Anybody Buying Stacey Abrams’s Pro-Cop Makeover?

I n a traditionally conservative state like Georgia, candidates for statewide office are unlikely to get very far campaigning on hard-left cultural policies such as defunding the police. Stacey Abrams, who is set to face Republican incumbent Brian Kemp in the race for Georgia governor this November, likely knows this: The Democrat’s tone on policing and criminal-justice issues noticeably moderated as she transitioned from progressive activist and media darling to political candidate whose success depends on winning votes from actual Georgians. Yet her history on the issue, as well as her continued ties to groups that actively support slashing police budgets, should give voters pause.

Today, Fox News reported that Abrams once co-chaired the Black Voices for Black Justice Fund, an activist group “that awarded tens of thousands of dollars to activists who want to defund and abolish the police.” It’s far from Abrams’s only run-in with the most radical edges of the progressive criminal-justice movement. She still sits on the board of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, a left-wing foundation that has called for police defunding and abolition, and whose president — a donor to Abrams’s gubernatorial campaign — has also argued that “prison abolition is the necessary precondition for any just society.” (Despite later efforts to distance herself from the foundation’s radical positions, Abrams voted to increase funding for anti-police groups while serving on the organization’s board.) And when pressed by CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota about the concept of defunding the police in June 2020, Abrams endorsed the idea of “some defunding,” while suggesting these resources fund the “murder” of black people:

ABRAMS: We also have to reallocate resources to invest in community. We have to improve education, we have to improve health care, we have to improve community programs that actually widen the likelihood of communities of color, particularly black communities surviving and thriving. And the notion that we have to put these two conversations in conflict is false. What is true is that we can and must do both. Reallocate resources for the public good and for the humanization of black communities, but also make certain that extrajudicial killings do not continue in our country.

CAMEROTA: So — so yes, to some defunding?

ABRAMS: We have to reallocate resources, so yes. If there’s a moment where the resources are so tight that we have to choose between whether we murder black people or serve black people, then absolutely our choice must be service.

The Kemp campaign has pressed its advantage on the law-enforcement issue, pointing out Abrams’s past comments and institutional affiliations in advertisements and press releases. In response, Abrams — who currently trails Kemp by just under six points in the polls — has made a concerted effort to distance herself from her former allies in left-wing activist circles. Her campaign has maintained that she “does not support defunding the police, and is a longtime supporter of investing in law enforcement,” and has even attempted to turn the tables by accusing Kemp of being soft on crime. The campaign aired one ad titled “Dangerous” that featured a retired deputy sheriff criticizing Kemp for signing a permitless-carry gun law, which allegedly “makes it easier for criminals to carry loaded guns in public.” In June, Abrams told Fox News Sunday that “violent crime went up 55 percent in 2019 to 2020 under Brian Kemp.” (“In actuality, the increase was around 5%, according to Georgia’s Uniform Crime Program,” NBC News noted.) That same month, her campaign released a “Plan to Strengthen Public Safety, Address Violent Crime, and Reform Criminal Justice in Georgia,” which called for “Georgia’s leaders [to] support and invest in law enforcement at every level to ensure that we build One Georgia with safe, thriving communities” and for higher pay for law-enforcement officers:

Raise base salary for state patrol, correctional officers (adult and juvenile), and community supervision officers to approximately $50,000/year and offer proportionate increases based on experience, which will improve recruitment and retention efforts to address severe staffing shortages, at a two-year cost of $91M per year.

The Abrams fund-the-police plan also attempted, once again, to attack Kemp from the right, arguing: “With more guns in our communities, due to Brian Kemp’s criminal carry law and the rise in violent crime under his watch, many law enforcement officers report concerns about an increase in crime and a harder time doing their jobs.” And in an interview with Axios upon the release of her plan, Abrams reiterated: “I do not, and have never said, and have never supported defunding the police.”

Abrams’s shift on the issue has generated anger from her former compatriots in progressive-activist circles. Her announcement of the “fund the police” initiative on Twitter garnered so much backlash that the social-media giant — absurdly — felt compelled to attach a “fact check” to her tweet arguing that “law enforcement are often paid less than a living wage.” (“Law enforcement officers in most jurisdictions are paid significantly more than the average worker with much better benefits and job security,” the fact check assured users.) “Abrams’ policy proposals represent another instance of the Democratic Party folding in the face of an all-too-predictable Republican and police backlash to 2020’s anti-police-brutality uprisings,” the Appeal complained. The Root reported that, while “it’s rare that anything Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams says is received with vitriol by Black folks or the political left,” she “may have made a rare political misstep” with her calls for more police pay.

The question, then, is which constituency would hold sway over Abrams if she’s elected in November — the left-wing activists or the Georgia voters? Given her history, as well as her connections with anti-police groups that she maintains to this day, I wouldn’t be so confident that Abrams’s abrupt pro-cop about-face is permanent.